The 2016 Elections: Sanders and Trump Contest the Party Establishment

Political expectations have been shaken in both the Republican and Democratic Parties by the spectacular rise of two candidates: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. What are the social bases of their respective challenges? What accounts for the timing of their extraordinary successes? Our speakers will discuss the campaigns themselves and their historical contexts, as well as their likely future trajectories.

Tom Ferguson is Director of Research at the Institute for New Economic Thinking where he writes on the role of money in politics.

Cedric Johnson is the author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders. He has written about the Sanders campaign for Jacobin Magazine.

Vanessa Williamson is the author, with Theda Skocpol, of The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism.